tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-491174673971804494.post684468302438884877..comments2024-03-22T01:06:23.845-07:00Comments on Confessions of a College Professor: What It Takes For A Conservative To Show Discrimination, Part 2Doomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528555392898760692noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-491174673971804494.post-27321249142922959122014-04-16T19:57:24.228-07:002014-04-16T19:57:24.228-07:00I have no idea, but I suspect that many Pragmatist...I have no idea, but I suspect that many Pragmatists are "hiding" within the ranks of the two ideological sides. I have no idea how there can be so many "true believers" at the top...at least a few have to be faking it, believing that's being on one side or the other is the best path to power. Even the libertarians have members saying "we need to change the system by joining it"...even though that, by definition, isn't going to work.Doomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04528555392898760692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-491174673971804494.post-58137136326353814322014-04-16T11:26:17.159-07:002014-04-16T11:26:17.159-07:00As usual, all of this boils down to the definition...As usual, all of this boils down to the definitions. As for me, I've been an aggressive GDI (Gosh Darned Independent) since '82 and I'm 52 now. I firmly believe that the conservative nor the liberal ideology is pure and fair minded but rather that ideology itself is the carrier of discrimination. Pragmatism the the fairest way to go. One of many reason I hold the ideologically impaired in such low esteem.<br /><br />The Lefty Ideologues, especially in the academy, make broad-side-of-a-barn-sized targets for snark, contempt and cynical estimations from all sides. To this day, Lefties seem like the various squabbling Red faction's in Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. They'd much rather shot at each other than at Franco's guys.<br /><br />Conservatives, though, make for targets that are just as satisfying. Much of my own family resides in the rural South and Midwest and are ardent in their self-identification as Conservatives. As followers of the Prince of Peace, the vitriol they heap on Muslims, liberals, blacks and, in earlier days, Jews as well as the desire for US military intervention goes well beyond hypocrisy. (I also count myself as Christian, happily ensconced in the Episcopal Church and occasionally slumming with the Quakers. I see nationalism and theatrical religiosity as a toxic witches brew.<br /><br />So yup, depending upon one's definition of the term, it doesn't take all that much for conservatives to display extreme levels of discrimination too; certainly the equal to any Lefty out there.<br /><br />My question is as such, how much of this tendency can be found in Pragmatists? Those who eschew political ideology for tools like SWOT or cost/benefit analysis in their decision making. Granted, thinking for one's self is HARD (no snark here, it really is) but the end results will be, at the very worst, no more flawed than those who off-shore their thought process to an ideology, and at best, it will be virtuous. KevPilothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16648052923868675240noreply@blogger.com